Advertising plays an important role for providers of video content. For example, in the case of video streaming websites such as YouTube™ and Hulu™, video content is often streamed to at least some of their users free of charge. A large portion of the content providers' revenue is therefore derived from advertising. Even in the case where video content is not provided free of charge, advertising revenue may also help to subsidize the cost of providing and hosting video content thus keeping subscription charges low. Users of video streaming websites often have the option of closing an advertisement being displayed and therefore the ability to display advertising which would interest a viewer is important to video content providers as it impacts their ability to attract advertisers and hence their revenue.
Currently known methods of identifying advertisements for display during video play is based on criterion such as user profile or behaviour, and metadata of a video such as title and genre. However, such methods of matching may not identify advertisements which will be of interest to a user. Similarly, in other situations such as in the educational context, it may also be desirable to identify relevant media content that would be of interest to a viewer.